JOY AND HEARTBREAK

PILSLEY COMMUNITY 3 LONG BENNINGTON 3

CMA DIVISION 1 EAST AT RUPERT ST

16 NOVEMBER 2024 --- 2PM

PILSLEY COMMUNITY V LONG BENNINGTON JAKE BROCK SHOT BLOCKED BY FIN STEWARDSON

A superb game to watch was summed up at the final whistle by the joys of Long Bennington who equalised with a superb strike with literally the last kick of the game and the disappointment of Pilsley who going for the third win in a row came back from behind to lead 3-1 before conceding so late on.

REX WHITEHURST CHALLENGES KIAN BARLOW

About time I made a visit to Pilsley and all things conspired to allow that this weekend.  In the couple of years since I had seen them last in The Hope Valley League, often a source of entertaining games, they had transferred their competition to The Central Midland Alliance competing in Division 1 East.  The change has seemed to suit them fairly well and has also brought in a new range of clubs non more so than today's visitors who have a long journey from their home between Newark and Grantham.

Bothe the clubs managers in Kev Carline and Andy Bird were away today apparently in sunnier environments so Gareth Lewin would take charge. 

The visitors were situated in a lowly position and with Pilsley going for their third consecutive win the form suggested a home win.  But of course football is a funny old game as somebody once said and the visitors contributed to this excellent encounter and in the end were well worth their point.

Quick catch up with Derbyshire FA referee Richard Thompson before the game to gain the teams was followed by a circuit of the pitch and as regular readers will know the complex sits on a ridge and yes the light wind elsewhere was a strong and cold one up here.

The club have purchased the adjacent field to the ground and have fenced it off and started to develop the surface which hopefully within the next year or so should se a new pitch for the seniors hopefully this will add to the club who have a wide collection of teams playing under their banner.

QUESTION OF SPORT SPOT THE REFEREE COMPETITION

Onwards to the game and with a healthy band of people gathered on this 'might stop in by the radiator' afternoon it was the visitors who shocked the locals with an opening goal and what an opening goal with Alfie Morley firing home from 25 yards into the top right hand corner after just 3 minutes.

JACK LEWIN COMES OUT OF THE CHALLENGE

It would take Pilsley a while to get a firm foothold back in the game but when they did they found an equaliser just past the half hour mark when Daniel Wing saw his effort parried by visiting keeper Fin Stewardson only for Jake Brock to slot home the ball.

Now Pilsley were looking in gear and Brock got in on a defensive error only to see Stewardson push away his effort.

On the stroke of half time Community did take the lead when Stewardson on the left edge of his box came out to challenge Wing only succeeding in bringing him down and Nathan Flint stepped up to despatch the penalty.

GARETH LEWIN BLOCKS OUT THE SUN

The usual quick turn round in these grassroots games was a blessing and off we set with Pilsley in the ascendancy straight away through Wing and Flint just had the ball taken away from him by visiting keeper Stewardson's intervention.

Again Wing was looking the danger as the visiting number one pushed the ball round for a corner.

JAKE BROCK LEVELS FOR PILSLEY

At the other end Pilsley were grateful to keeper James Baron for a sharp save from Christopher Foat whose sharp shot tested him and all this within the first four minutes of the second half.

Both teams were going for this game now and it was great to see non of the passing square, passing back stuff of the higher league just genuine effort from the teams out for a good game of football.

There wasn't much to keep Wing out of the game as he let fly with a cross goal shot that flew just wide of the far post.

Then Pilsley took the lead with another wonderful goal after 64 minutes when Kian Barlow weaved his way past two players on the left hand side of the box before slotting past Stewardson into the far right hand corner of the goal to give Pilsley a two goal cushion.

Two goal leads are often seen as the wobbly time so much more so than one goal leads I'm never quite sure why but here we were about to find out this old adage again.

NATHAN FLINT MAKES IT 2-1 ON THE STROKE OF HALF TIME

Long Bennington were straight back onto trying to save this game and the arrears were reduced with 18 minutes to play with another wonder strike a superb low controlled drive from 25 yards out.  Here full time has James Marshall as the scorer whereas my number had Jack Gowen [15] so I mention both it may be a team sheet number or my viewing through the lens, but one thing is it was a cracker.

GARETH LEWIN HALF TIME CALMNESS

The game was in full swing now and it could really have gone either way at this stage with eight minutes to go Baron pulled off a smart save re gathering the lose ball after captain Owen Riley fired goalwards.

STEWARDSON UP HIGH TO GATHER

As the light fell away on the winters afternoon we entered the third minute of stoppage time deemed playable by referee Thompson and with one last effort the ball fell to Morley 25 yards out and he struck his second the sweetest unstoppable shot into the Pilsley net.  A fourth goal for the wonder goals of the afternoon tally but more to the point can this lad strike a ball!  As the ball was gathered from the net and Long Bennington celebrated not only the strike but the realisation of a valuable point as the referee blew for time.

A quite remarkable game to watch as a neutral with disappointment for Pilsley being to the fore it was equally matched by the tremendous contribution of the visitors who only scored goal of the month contenders.  A draw had to be seen as a fair result and I will look out for the visitors when they are in the area again.

A wonderfully entertaining game thanks to both sides but if somebody could turn the heater on next time.

As ever there are a few more pictures than words so hopefully you can scroll through them to have a look.

CHRISTOPHER FOAT GETS A SHOT IN

STEWARDSON PUSHES OVER AT FULL STRETCH

ANOTHER GAME WONDER GOAL KIAN BARLOW

ALFIE MORLEY RECEIVES THE PLAUDITS FOR HIS EQUALISER

SECOND MINUTE

DRONFIELD TOWN 0 NOSTELL MW 1 

NCEFL DIVISION ONE AT STONELOW ROAD

9 NOVEMBER 2024 --- 3PM

DRONFIELD TOWN V NOSTELL ANTONY LEECH WIINER AS REF PHOTO BOMBS PICTURE 

Antony Leech scored the wining goal after just two minutes and then proceeded with his team mates to mount a remarkable defence against Dronfield Town's second half onslaught.  It wasn't enough to pull the visitors out of the relegation zone but it closed the gap and also gave Dronfield the worry of being just five points clear also now.  What it did do for the visitors was gelled together a team of determined efforts from back to front as they held out for the valuable three points.

SOME OF THE FINEST

I know they are here again but how can you not feature these beauties from The Jolly Friar and once again game selection I have to say it swung the selector in favour of what looked a close game in prospect at Stonelow Road.

Dronfield had a disappointing county cup home loss to Glossop N.E in midweek by five goals to nil and were looking to reset with 3 points that would take them into a comfortable mid table NCEFL Division One league position.  The visitors were also much in need of the maximum tally as they sat in the final relegation spot at this still early stage of a long season.

WINNING GOALCELEBRATIONS WITH ANTONY LEECH [5]

It was hard to believe that it had been just shy of three months since a visit to the chippy and of course Dronfield Town.  Once again though we were presented by an overcast and gloomy day and with the onset of evenings and floodlights it proved a challenging photographic day.

Dronfield seemed off the pace in the opening exchanges and indeed so it proved when a scramble close in allowed Leech the chance to stretch to roll the ball over the line despite home keeper Lewis Naylor's efforts referee Ross Steele signalled a goal. You could sense the deflation in the home side and it took them a fair while to get back in the game.

Just past the half hour mark a golden opportunity saw a trianlge of players combine Owen Lester and Sam Bebbington set up Max Rhodes who fired his effort goalwards only to find Nostell keeper Aidan Tyas fly across its path to deflect for a corner.  The resulting couple of in swinging near post corners were superbly punched away by the visitors number one.

Again Tyas got in the way of Dronfield but as the ball ended up in the back of the net referee Steele blew for a foul on the custodian.  With a minute to the break Charlie Stewart struck the post with a sharp shot and then on the stroke of time Tyas got down to block close in on his line.

The second period started worryingly when Tyas went down in pain with a knee injury after taking a goal kick with substitute with Jack Maeer taking over.

As the home side looked to muster consistent pressure it was the visitors who nearly pulled the sucker punch with Naylor having to pull off a flying save from a Eddie Tynouse long range effort. 

The pressure came and increased for Nostell as they valiantly defended throughout and when Dronfield looked like breaking through a foot or a deflection denied them more often than not through this intense rear guard action.  Goal hero Leech in defensive role denied Thomas Gladwin's close range volley, Bebbington fired narrowly off target and Rhodes placed an effort agonisingly inches wide.

UP DOWN STOP THE MANAGEMENT DRONFIELD TOWN

As the game entered the second minute of nine added minutes Ethan Flower fired in a close range effort that went straight into the grasp of Maeer.  

Time was up on Dronfield's efforts and it just remained for the referee to call full time at 5pm, a result of the Tyas injury and a collection of lapsing of time by the visitors. 

A monumental effort from Nostell who had fought tooth and nail to survive the Dronfield second half possession and collection of near misses that came along.  That said at times Dronfield lacked the pace and quality on the day to take their chances.  

THE MANAGEMENT NOSTELL MW FC

From a neutral viewpoint it was an intriguing game as it looked likely Town would equalise at the very least but it was an admirable performance from Nostell backed up by an outstanding performance from Leech in defence of his early winning goal.

Just a couple more to view hopefully you can scroll through them.

SEMI FINALS

LANGWITH WHITESTAR 6 CHAPEL TOWN RES 2

DFA JUNIOR CUP NORTH QUARTER FINAL AT COCKSHUT LANE

2 NOVEMBER 2024 --- 1.30PM

LANGWITH WHITESTAR V CHAPEL TOWN RES WITH SAM DOCKWRAY HAT TRICK MAN

Langwith stormed into the semi finals of the DFA Junior North Cup after a powerful second half performance after going in at the break all square with a determined Chapel Town who in the end were thankful to an excellent performance from keeper Thomas Gyte for keeping the numbers down.

GYTE WOULD BE STRONG IN GOAL ALL THE GAME FOR CHAPEL

A new ground and its not been often I have said that recently but this has been a ground on the list for a little while and it looked an interesting encounter.  Sadly most of the the game barring last 25 minutes or so were under a brolly with drizzle and dark weather affecting the collection of pictures today.

The approach was via the Mag Lane railway level crossing and for some reason the manned crossing was shut 15 minutes before the trains passing.  Thankfully time was ok and arrival and a nice chat with ex Football League official Mark Sutton followed another first I have not covered a game he has been on before either.

LIAM WIDDOWSON SETS OFF

Langwith is a former mining town with some classic pit village houses and seems to be merged with Whaley Thorns and I'm not sure where the boundary stops so we could be in the latter but equally it may be the former.  While there appears to be three Whaley's in Whaley, Whaley Common and Whaley Thorns Langwith goes a few more to the better.  The options are Langwith, Nether Langwith, Langwith Maltings, Upper Langwith, Langwith Junction and Langwith Bassett.

THE CARDS COMING

The pitch would be found in nice condition for a recreation ground with a fenced compound of changing rooms and a selection of park seats looking onto the pitch the club also have respect roping on one side of the ground.  

AND THERE IT IS

Thankfully teams were obtained from the home side and the away side I was patiently assisted by Henry De Pee.  After a circuit we were ready for a prompt start in this 1.30 kick off.

THE MANAGEMENT LANGWITH WHITESTAR

So from the Nottinghamshire border lands with a roads breadth keeping the home side in Derbyshire the chance to test themselves against their High Peak visitors didn't get off to the best of the start when they went one down after 3 minutes when George Rowlands low shot found its way in at the post as keeper Ben Goddard couldn't hold on to the strike, 

Langwith were confident they could get back into the game and forced Gyte into a acrobatic save from Sam Dockwray's effort and it was the ever threatening frontman who levelled the scores from the penalty spot after he was brought down just inside the box after 20 minutes.

SAM DOCKWRAY HAT TRICK HERO

It continued to be the home side pressing and shortly after Dockwray [S] got his second with a back post effort that rolled in off the far post to give them the lead.

As Whitestar mounted more pressure you feared for the visitors but amazingly seven minutes before the break they equalised with a good double save from Goddard the ball was finally despatched by Rowlands for his second.

Just before the break Gyte was called on when he pulled of a remarkable set of three saves in the same move to deny Langwith.

Usual brief break at this level of football and there seemed no panic in the home sides management and so it turned out to be in the second half.

So the second half would start with Langwith straight on the attack and a confident performance it would produce.

Just shy of the hour mark Langwith grabbed the lead again when a when a wonderful in swinging corner off the right from Brady Dockwray evaded Gyte's efforts and flew straight in to make it 3-2.

The dominance would start just two minutes later when the fourth arrived courtesy of  Dockwray [S] who fired in to complete his hat trick.

HENRY DE PEE - CHAPEL TOWN

The home side were dominant now but it has to be said that the visitors never gave up the cause and were battling away with a credit to their club. 

But they couldn't deny the home a side a fifth again a corner did the damage Chapel could not clear their lines and Daniel Foster provided the strike with fifteen minutes remaining.

3-2 BRADY DOCKWRAY SCORES STRAIGHT FROM THE CORNER

Chapel did have a few breaks with nothing really coming from them although De Pee did have what looked a good appeal for a penalty turned down by referee Sutton. However it was soon normal service resumed as Langwith made it half a dozen in the goal stakes on 90 minutes again Gyte, who had been excellent, pulled off a double save but couldn't deny the third effort a super strike from 25 yards out from Liam Widdowson that was a clear 'top bins' contender.

BRACE FOR GEORGE ROWLANDS BUT THIS EFFORT STRIKES THE WALL

Shortly after referee Sutton blew for time in what had been an cracking little game that it has to be said the visitors played their part in.  From a Langwith point of view they will go into the semi finals with a confidence and not many will want to face the Nottinghamshire Senior League lads.

Hopefully I get the chance to re visit on a better weather day and collect some better pictures than today but winter is coming and the dark afternoons follow of course.  Their appears a few pictures still left so hopefully you will take a look at those below these words.

An enjoyable afternoon I shall look out for Langwith's progression.